Chapter 16: Tumbled

Disclaimer: This author in no way profits from the writing of this story. All characters, dialogue, or other referenced material from the Mass Effect trilogy belong to BioWare.

Author's Note: This story does not necessarily follow any particular timeline and may not be considered chronologically accurate.

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Vadix sat in silence, knowing she must be expecting him to keep asking questions, but he was suddenly afraid of the answers. After all, he had no reason to doubt her honesty, and he believed Cassana would tell him the truth, no matter the content of his query.

She hadn't said much of consequence this morning, true, but he still felt overwhelmed by her: by her past words, by her present actions, by her various states of undress. Vadix thought he'd been prepared to see Cassana again, especially after a chagrined apology led to another lengthy but enlightening discussion with Trebaana who didn't have any experience with courting a human, but still had more experience with courting, period, than he did.

It was not good timing to be thinking about his mother.

Instead, thinking back on when she'd opened the door, it was all too easy to picture again. That unfamiliar ache lurched behind his lower plates as Vadix thought about those bizarrely smooth pair of legs, a confusing patchwork of cream and pink skin, while from the top of the towel peeped more exposed flesh, none of which was red in the slightest, caressed by the damp tendrils of flaming hair that sprouted perplexingly from her head.

Puzzled as he was by the color combination, it was unlike anything he'd yet to see in his life. But then she was unlike anyone he'd yet to meet, so he supposed it made sense, in an oddly erotic sort of way.

Upon first seeing her, he had simply been too shocked to think anything.

One look and it was like his brain had stopped computing.

He had been almost glad for the pain he'd felt where his lower plates normally met. It brought him back to the present. And the discomfort meant that the object of his desire couldn't immediately discern his sudden lust for her.

Which, he mused, was an entirely new and foreign feeling for him. He'd never wanted another turian in that way, nor any member of any other species for that matter. Of course, after his years in the academy, Vadix had heard enough stories to be familiar with the concept of an inexplicable longing, of the act of sex that sometimes followed if you were lucky, even of mating. He'd learned a great deal from eavesdropping on classmates.

Or he'd thought it had been a great deal.

None of what they'd said compared to what he felt for this alien woman, what he wished to give her, what he wanted from her, what he yearned to do to her.

The ferocity of this last craving floored him.

No wonder human-turian pairings were so uncommon. Vadix was no expert but somehow he knew that her fleshy hide and vulnerable body, attractive as they may be, were no match for the animalistic need to mark her, to claim her as his, which was only just beginning to course through him like an electric current.

Even if she was up to the challenge mentally, physically Cassana would be unable to withstand it.

And then she would inevitably hate him.

But then, she had on several occasions alluded to just how thorough her study of living things was, through her "clients", as she called them. Perhaps she had already experienced firsthand this kind of intensity.

Preferably not with another turian though.

This one did not want to share.

But who was he kidding? She was beautiful, sensual, irresistible.

Of course she'd slept with a turian before.

Not that they would've done much sleeping.

No, there would've been no sleeping at all.

She must already be familiar with the aggressive, even barbaric, lovemaking of his race.

Just claws and muscles and sex and tongue and teeth.

All night.

The thought was far more repellant than it was comforting.

Vadix tried to think objectively for a moment, biting down on the instinct to bare his teeth at unknown and as yet unconfirmed competition.

First, he reminded himself, it would be far more surprising if she were less experienced than he was, especially given his own lack of interest up until this moment. As far as he could tell, she was not lacking as far as motive was concerned.

Second, from the very little he knew, Cassana was at least pretty by human standards, but with her vivacious personality and confident airs he suspected she was nothing short of sexy. It was easy to imagine her having had at least one offer of companionship at some point during her life thus far.

And third, if she had… Vadix could hardly think the words. If she had previously spent the night with a turian, then she was less likely to be startled by the savage longing he felt for her.

He swallowed down the growl building in his throat with some difficulty, hoping to all the spirits that his subvocals weren't giving him away.

Now all that remained to be known was if she would have him.

That's what Vadix tried to tell himself anyway. But what he really wanted to know was how many partners she'd had, why she'd picked any of them, if he even stood a chance to measure up or if she would forever see him as a child, immature and ignorant.

Rather than dwell on these plaguing questions that only seemed to multiply with the answers he received, the turian let his mind dwell again on the alien anatomy he now found so magnetic. Perhaps she would rather bathe in silence, he excused himself wordlessly from the conversation now long over as he watched her through the glass. Her bare outline was blurred into a curvy mess, such that all Vadix could easily discern were colors. And it was like the waxing or waning of a sun: golds and reds and burning.

Hard as he tried to be gallant, his eyes were practically glued to her form as she stood. The foggy glass was somehow worse than the fluffy towel: he could see more but he could distinguish less.

Too distracted to realize how long the silence had lasted, Vadix was startled to hear Cassana's voice once more.

"Are you still there?" her voice echoed in the muggy room.

Nodding, the turian replied gruffly, "Yes, haven't moved."

"Good," she murmured, and Vadix thought the human sounded preoccupied. "Get my towel from the wall next to you and hold it out in front of you. I'm coming out."

Barely having time to process her words before the glass began to slide back, he snatched the fabric from the hanger and stood, extending it toward her, the bottom edge quivering half a meter off the ground. It doesn't look tall enough, Vadix noted absentmindedly.

And then the door stopped with a smack and he could just see the top of her scalp above the edge of her towel.

From behind it, Vadix heard a faint giggle, "What an odd way to use a towel." But she made no move to step out of the tub.

"How else would you use it?" he mumbled, embarrassed.

Her hidden giggle turned into a snicker. "You hold it horizontally, obviously. So you can wrap it around yourself. Or do you not do that?"

Mandibles flapping his discomfiture, the turian carefully turned the towel 90 degrees.

Now he could see the woman grinning at him. Well, laughing at me, he amended mentally. He still wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

Again, just like when she'd greeted him this morning, the towel masked her core, covering her from just below the shoulders to just below the hips.

And just like this morning, Vadix couldn't mask his own visceral response to her. He fought internally against the dull throb now pressed against his armor while his subvocals purred with pleasure.

Once more he was grateful that his armor was stronger than his arousal.

Cassana's eyebrows quirked upward from an expression the man didn't recognize. "Do you hear something?" she wondered aloud. "Sounds like… humming." But then she shrugged it off, "Must be an appliance at the neighbor's or something. These places are so old, it's like there's a new sound every day."

Vadix could only grunt in response, fearing that to open his mouth would be tantamount to surrender.

What he didn't know was if he would be surrendering to her or to himself.

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Watching this man watching her, Cass was tempted to steal the towel from him and drop it in the bath. After all, "coming on strong" was a bit of an understatement when it came to her go-to method to catch someone's eye. She knew exactly how to make herself desirable and she wasn't afraid to do it.

But Vadix wasn't like any of her previous conquests. No, he wasn't at all a conquest to be had. From everything he'd told her, Cass knew he was a virgin in every sense of the word.

That's not to say her regular strategies wouldn't work, but somehow it would feel like cheating, especially when the poor man probably didn't even know the proper names—nor the slang terms—for all of her enticing sexual organs.

And then, if she was being entirely honest with herself, there was something so appealing about earning his affection without resorting to any sly techniques.

As much as she wanted him to want her, if it was going to be anything beyond simple sex with no strings attached, the woman would have to think outside of her kink box.

Cass still wasn't sure if that was really what she wanted, but she also wasn't ready to take that option entirely off the table just yet.

So, she settled for stepping out of the tub and, turning around, into the waiting towel. Pinching it from the turian's grasp she murmured "thanks" and moved to the vanity in the remaining corner. Given the presence of current company, Cass briefly debated about skipping her post-shower routine but decided to go for it: after all, it wasn't intended to be attractive.

But if he wanted to stare, she wasn't going to stop him.

After tucking in one corner of the towel just below her collarbone, she grabbed the remaining clean washcloth to pull the dampness from her hair.

Her companion asked a question, just as she was beginning to worry about the silence. "Does it have a purpose, your hair?"

The direction of his thoughts caught her off guard. "Um, no, I guess not…" Cass trailed off. "I'm sure there's some biological or evolutionary reason for it but now it's just used for individual expression, I suppose." She glanced at the turian, now seated on the edge of the tub. His brow plates were pulled down and his mandibles were pressed tight to his slightly open mouth. The human grinned at his pure curiosity. "Do you want to feel it?" Walking over before he could respond, she angled her neck to drape her drying mane in front of him.

With a metallic thud, Vadix fell back into the now-empty bathtub.

"Shit!" Cass cried, leaning over him. "Are you alright? What happened?"

With eyes closed and mandibles wafting in and out, the man sighed, "I sort of jumped when you were suddenly so close and must've lost my balance."

"Well, here, let me help you out," she offered, extending a hand toward the alien half-prostrated in her tub. Gripping his talons, she started to pull on his arm.

Then shrieked.

The human tumbled into the bathtub, her hips pressed against his knees, bare feet flailing in the air, and barely managed to get her hands up before her face slammed into his armored chest piece.

Cass looked up and she was less than a handspan away from the turian's mandibles, twitching beneath widened navy eyes.

She was reminded of the first time she saw him, running in the Presidium. Then he had looked like he was running from something.

Now the human felt like running away too: she didn't want to feel any of this, whatever this was. A passing attraction was one thing, but the butterfly wings she was beginning to feel in her stomach? Bad news.

Forcing herself to break eye contact, the woman began to rise but Vadix stopped her, pointing a timid talon while gripping her upper arm with the other. "Er, your towel, coming loose," he blurted, voice gravelly, likely from the weight on his chest.

She glanced down and, sure enough, the tussle with the bathtub had proved too much for the fabric corner. Pressed as she was against his armor, her cleavage was only inches from becoming full-on flashing. Noticing his eyes were pinched tight, Cass tried to think quickly, suggesting, "Um, I'm gonna turn over, alright? Better leverage, and then I can sit up and get out of your way."

Making sure to roll in the same direction as the towel wrapped around her, the human slowly wiggled onto her back. It was much more difficult to do than she expected, given that she couldn't touch the floor with her feet and had to use her hands to maintain some semblance of modesty. Finally she sat up, her own legs flush with the turian's, who grunted audibly as her weight continued to shift.

"Sorry," she breathed. Cass held the towel with one hand and tried to pull herself up with the other, clinging to the glass door. But all she could manage was sitting on air instead of on turian.

"Damn, this angle," she swore as she settled back into Vadix's lap, who stifled a moan. "Sorry," she apologized again, embarrassed for the first time that she could remember in nearly a decade.

Then she was struck with inspiration. Peeking over her shoulder, she asked the man, "How's your upper body strength?"

His eyes snapped open. "My what?"

Sighing, Cass explained, "I'm gonna need you to lift me up until I can touch the floor again."

"Lift you up?" he repeated. "How?"

The human rolled her eyes. "Do you need my explicit permission?" she huffed. "Fine. Vadix: you're going to grab my ass and push, okay?"

His mandibles hung loose in shock but he answered, nearly mute, "Okay."

Gripping her towel and reaching for the door frame, Cass asked, "Ready?"

Vadix grunted in response.

Hoping that was an affirmative, she stretched forward and, just as she grabbed the slippery glass, Cass was propelled forward, nearly tripping over the surplus of feet in the tiny bathroom.

But at least she was out of the tub. And she'd (probably) managed not to disrobe in front of her new coworker and friend.

"Thanks!" she exclaimed with relief.

She turned to face him again and the turian seemed to be half-smiling, half-growling.

"You help me now?" he asked, stuttering.

"No! That's what got us into that mess in the first place," Cass protested.

Vadix rolled his head at her, as much as the cramped tub allowed. "Rude."

She rolled her eyes at him now. "Not rude, just practical." Feeling playful, she stuck her tongue out at him.

Chuckling in response, the sound seemed to reverberate within the confines of the tub. What a pleasing sound, the woman noticed.

But after watching Vadix pull himself out with relative ease, Cass folded her arms and glared at him. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

The turian looked innocently at her, standing stiffly. "Did what?"

"You pulled me in!" She couldn't believe it. This was something she would've expected from… well from anyone but this naïve little boy, honestly.

"Did not!" he complained, pouting just like a little boy.

Cass eyed him suspiciously as she turned back to the vanity. "I'm not sure I believe you, so you better stay over there until I'm done," she stated, pointing back at the toilet.

He rolled his head again, but did as he was told.

"Good boy," she complimented him, sniggering. "I just gotta finish up in here, get dressed, and pack a bag for after work."

"Why?" Vadix asked from his corner seat.

Groaning, Cass answered, "Monthly 'girls night', with some friends from my job at the club. I never look forward to it but then it always ends up being fun. It's the one night I just let loose and have fun and put my own needs and wants before anyone else's: no holds barred."